George Lee- the only honest politician?

When most people who voted for George Lee eight or nine months ago were asked why they voted for him, most of them, remembering him as the well spoken harbinger of doom on the news every night, would probably have said it was because he was honest, because he told it like it was and that he seemed like he had some answers to the problems we were facing.

Could it be possible that George Lee could be the first ever totally honest man ever elected to a TD seat?

What his resignation has shown, I believe, is that Lee is far too honest for his own good. The old saying goes that anyone who wants to run for office should immediately be disqualified from doing so. George Lee was full of optimism when he was elected (winning by a huge majority on the first vote count, a feat matched only by Brian Cowen in his election as TD), after his landslide victory he said, “I’m looking forward to representing [the voters] and speaking up on their behalf, holding the Government to account, bringing in a new era of what I have been describing as a new era of responsibility.”

What we know now, over eight months on, is that George did not get what he expected. From his point of view he was used as a show pony of sorts, not having any input into policy. Quoted in the Times: “When I entered politics last May I made it clear that I was doing so because I wanted to try to play a new role contributing to economic policy formulation. Throughout that period I have done my best to play a positive role in contributing to the national debate and to efforts to find a solution for many of the country’s economic problems. After nine months of trying within the political system, it is now my considered view that the role available to me within Fine Gael is not a role I am happy to play.”

It may have been Lee’s naiveté, his misunderstanding of the plans Enda Kenny had for him, it may have been a lack of communication on behalf of Kenny, it may even have been Lee’s unwillingness or misunderstanding of the role in which he was elected to fulfill or more worryingly still, could it be possible that George Lee could be the first ever totally honest man ever elected to a TD seat?

Not only honest to himself, but honest to the constituents who elected him and the political system that he was elected into. George Lee said the most disturbing thing I’ve heard for a long time on The Frontline. When asked why he resigned not only from Fine Gael, but why he left the TD seat altogether, something he didn’t have to do, given that his beef was with the party and not the Lower House according to every news broadcast since lunchtime, Lee said “It would have been disingenuous to carry on with the charade.”

What Lee discovered in his few months in office is that our political system is broken, that every TD in the country is carrying on an act whether they know it or not, that the people we elect are nothing more than professional politicians, some of them as well meaning and politically high minded as anyone could ever hope, yet still confined by the system of schmoozing in the back of the Dáil bar and stuck in a never ending loop of political sniping across the aisle and taking care of backwards local constituency issues rather than being parliamentarians.

As a student of politics, I always thought that the beauty of democracy is that if you give a well informed and politically aware public the choice between A or B or C, they will always make the right choice because as a group, people are well intentioned and in theory, they should know what’s best for them. The problem is that the media are not doing their job by informing and educating the public on the issues, thus the voters are not politically engaged, and thus the government was permitted to degrade into what we have now, a broken system. To quote the philosophical genius of Super Hans: “People listen to Coldplay and voted for the Nazis, you can’t trust people.” People get the government they deserve. The people of South Dublin realised this when they elected George Lee, but unfortunately it was too little too late, the system had no use for him, he was a shiny new cog in a busted clock.

George Lee could have been a great politician. An old teacher of mine in secondary school always said that if you don’t agree with the government and you don’t agree with anyone on the ballot, it’s your civic duty to run for election. George Lee did his civic duty the best way he knew how, he joined the opposition because he fundamentally disagreed with the economic policy of the last ten years, but when he got there he realised that the leaves might have been different but the roots were the same. In fact, not only could Lee have been a great politician; he is a great politician because a great politician does their best to represent the needs of their constituents. George Lee did this by getting up, walking out, finding the nearest microphone, looking into the camera and saying ‘This is crap, things need to change’. This is a debate we need to have and we’re now having it thanks to the brave actions of one man, quite possibly the only honest man in politics.

By Kevin O'Connor

http://apintofplain.wordpress.com